In point of purchase displays in retail establishments, common sales aids are used directly at the points of purchase that are referred to as xe2x80x9cshelf talkersxe2x80x9d. Traditional shelf talkers are face printed pressure sensitive, typically removable, adhesive labels with the adhesive exposed on the back when the liner is removed. This allows it to stick face down, often covering something below it, such as regular price information. While such removable adhesive shelf talkers are advantageous in that they can be readily applied and removed as needed, because they lay flat they may not attract the consumers attention to the targeted product. Other conventional shelf talkers are in the form of a card stock that is placed inside the ribbing of a shelf or placed inside a plastic tab. Because these also lay flat, they may also fail to attract the consumers attention to the targeted product. Yet other shelf talkers are in the form of a card stock that is secured in a clip to project at a 90 degree angle to the shelf. While a projecting card will attract the consumer""s attention, the card may inadvertently become dislodged from the clip, particularly when the consumer takes merchandise from the shelf.
In addition to the above noted short-comings, many conventional shelf talkers are cumbersome and time consuming to put up and take down, and in retail establishments where there is a high volume of traffic or constantly changing advertised specials, price reductions, or the like, shelf talkers sometimes need to be put up and taken down daily or weekly. Conventional cut-to-size card stock shelf wrap in particular is very cumbersome and time consuming, gets hard to see, and gets bent or sticks out at eye level due to the multitude of shelving, pallet, and peg configurations that it is forced to fit. Spending time with such tags takes away from time that sales representatives could better be spending interfacing with customers, stocking shelves, or the like. Also, typical shelf talkers lack versatility. That is, they are in general adapted to be applied at the point of purchase in only one way.
According to the present invention, a point of purchase label construction, particularly utilizable in a display assembly, and in a method of associating point of purchase indicia with a point of purchase display, is provided that has significant advantages compared to the prior art techniques. The label construction, or xe2x80x9cshelf talkerxe2x80x9d, according to the present invention may be either adhesively applied or may be placed inside a plastic tab so that the label construction can be adapted to the product labeling scheme provided by the retailer. They also allow for several other unique folding capabilities for those facings that do not conform entirely to conventional practice. The label constructions according to the present invention provide a front face which has an attractive appearance and the label construction can either be disposed flat or a portion of the label may be bent to stand out as a flag portion at an angle of up to 90 degrees. The flag portion will not delaminate and, therefore, will continue to display its message to customers until the label is removed and will not be dislodged as can occur with cards inserted in clips. While the label construction is durable and remain intact, they are easily detached from the product display, have great eye appeal and selling appeal, a professional look, and most significantly are easier to use, more versatile, and less costly and time consuming to install than conventional shelf talkers. The label constructions according to the invention also can be used in association with a vertical wall of a display rack.
Thus, according to one aspect of the present invention a point of purchase label construction is provided comprising the following components: a label face stock ply having first and second faces; an opaque liner ply having first and second faces, a first portion of the first face of the liner ply having an adhesive release coating and a second portion of the first face of the liner ply being free from an adhesive release coating; a pressure sensitive adhesive between the adhesive liner ply first face and the label face stock ply second face, holding the plies together; and a line of weakness defined in the liner ply separating the liner ply into a first portion corresponding to the first portion of the first face and a second portion corresponding to the second portion of the first face, thereby allowing ready removal of the first portion from the face stock ply to expose the adhesive on a portion of the face stock ply second face.
In a presently preferred embodiment, the liner ply second portion has point of purchase indicia imaged on the second face thereof. Furthermore, in that embodiment, the face stock ply can be composed of first and second portions corresponding to the first and second portions of the liner ply and the second portion of the face stock ply has point of purchase indicia imaged thereon. Accordingly, in that embodiment, if desired, the second portion of the liner ply and the corresponding of the label face stock ply can be bent with respect to a plane of a remainder of the face stock.
Typically, the first portion of the release liner ply second face has directional indicia imaged thereon, such as the words xe2x80x9cremove backing from this sidexe2x80x9d and/or arrows or other indicia indicating that the first portion should be removed in order to utilize the label in its adhesive configuration. In the alternative, the first portion of the release line ply can be retained in position and the entire label construction slid into a plastic tab.
The face stock ply may be of synthetic material, such as polypropylene, and the adhesive is preferably repositional adhesive, such as CLEANTAC(trademark) adhesive used with repositional products of Moore U.S.A., Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., or the adhesive used for 3M POST-IT(copyright) products. The release liner ply may be bond paper, and the adhesive release coating a conventional silicone coating.
The label construction according to the present invention typically is supplied in an integral combination with a plurality of other label constructions in an 8 xc2xdxc3x9711 inch sheet, the label constructions separated from each other in the sheet by lines of weakness, such as conventional microperforations. For example between 8-18 label constructions (typically 10 or 12) are provided in a sheet. The sheet may also have removable marginal portions containing instructional indicia on the face stock ply first face, explaining how to use the label constructions. Typically, the label constructions have a quadrate configuration with width and length dimensions of roughly between 1.25-1.75 inchesxc3x972.75-5.00 inches, respectively.
According to another aspect of the present invention a display assembly is provided comprising a point of purchase label construction, including: a label face ply having first and second faces; an opaque liner ply part having first and second faces, the first face of the liner ply part being free from an adhesive release coating, and the second face of the liner ply part having a first point of purchase indicia imaged thereon, a pressure sensitive adhesive on the label face stock ply second face, and the first face of the face ply having second point of purchase indicia imaged thereon; the face ply being larger than the liner ply part so that a portion of the adhesive is exposed on the face stock ply second face; a point of purchase display construction having a surface, and associated with a displayed item for purchase; and the exposed adhesive in contact with the surface of the point of purchase display so that at least the second point of purchase indicia is readily visible to one viewing an item displayed by the point of purchase display.
The point of purchase display construction may comprise a shelf, and the surface may comprise a front face of a vertical portion of the shelf. The exposed adhesive may be in contact with the front face of the shelf vertical portion so that the label construction point of purchase indicia is viewable at the same time as the item price information indicia. Preferably the adhesive is repositional so that the label construction may be readily removed from contact with the shelf surface and positioned in another location. The liner ply part may have a quadrate construction with width and length dimensions of about 1xc2xd inches by 1xc2xd inches and the exposed adhesive area of the face ply also has a quadrate construction with width and length dimensions of about 1xc2xc by 3xc2xd inches.
In this embodiment, the release liner ply and the associated portion of the face label stock ply are bent so as to be oriented at an angle of greater than 90 degrees with respect to the remainder of the first label stock ply so that the point of purchase indicia can be viewed by customers approaching the label construction lengthwise of the shelf from either direction.
Alternatively the point of purchase construction may comprise a peg having a price tag, with the surface comprising the price tag. As yet another alternative the point of purchase display construction may comprise a rack, and the surface a substantially vertical wall of the rack.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a method of associating point of purchase indicia with a point of purchase display construction having a surface, and associated with a displayed item for purchase, is provided. The method utilizes a point of purchase label construction such as described above. The method comprises the steps of: securing the label construction with respect to the display construction; and bending the portion of the label construction corresponding to the second portion of the liner ply so that it is disposed at an angle of greater than zero degrees with respect to a remainder of the label construction so that the point of purchase indicia of each the ply is visible.
Where the point of purchase display construction comprises a shelf and the surface is a front face of a vertical portion of the shelf, the step of securing can comprise separating the release liner ply first portion at the line of weakness to expose the adhesive on a portion of the face stock ply second face, and pressing the exposed adhesive into contact with the surface of the point of purchase display construction so that the point of purchase indicia on the face stock first face is readily visible at the same time that the display item is viewed.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an advantageous point of purchase label construction, that may be used in an advantageous display assembly and a method of associating point of purchase indicia with a display construction. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.